Day 1 of Summer Goal: 20 Mathical Prize or Honor Picture Books

I was so excited when Mathical Science Research Institute (MSRI) named 100 Bugs! a 2019 Mathical Honor Book. So for the first day of my summer challenge, I figured I should familiarize myself with other titles on their list. Here's a short blurb about each book and a five-minute video about the ones I plan on using in my classroom.

The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos By Deborah Heligman and illustrated by LeUyen Pham

I’ll be buying this book for my classroom because of the brilliant illustrator notes. Yes, you heard me right. The illustrator’s notes at the end of the book are jam-packed with math facts that made me go back and pore over the book’s illustrations. This book will intiruge upper elementary students who love math and pairs nicely with Nothing Stopped Sophie by Cheryl Bardoe and illustrated by Barbara McClintock. 

Count the Monkeys By Mac Barnett and illustrated by Kevin Cornell

Readers will love the humor in this book especially if they’re familiar with Little Red Riding Hood. As for the math, it's the simple concept of counting to ten. Perfect for a kindergarten classroom on a Friday afternoon when you can get them riled up and send them home.

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Mouse Math: A Mousy Mess By Laura Driscoll and illustrated by Deborah Melmon

I didn’t know about this math series but early educators will find it helpful for sure. This would be a great book to read before a sorting activity where kids can sort objects by various attributes such as shape, size and color.
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Shapes, Reshape by Silvia Borando

I was about to write that I wouldn’t use this book in a fourth grade classroom because the math concept of counting backward from ten is pretty simple , but as soon as I thought it, I realized I could use it. The truth is the book's main math concept that shapes can be rearranged to form different images is pretty complex. Every year I ask my students to make a picture from various shapes and this book would be a great way to introduce the activity.

3x4 A Toon Book by Ivan Brunetti

Definitely a fun book for an early elementary classroom. Not only does it explore different sets of 12 and children’s creativity, it uses a graphic format which is very popular with today's readers. In the back matter Brunetti explains that he “assigned drawing sets of three to his own students-but since they are college-aged, they have the extra challenge of making 25 sets of three things each,” which brought me back to my MFA at Simmons College where I had to write fifty two-page analyses of the art in picture books. It's neat to think of ways writing and illustrating assignments mirror one another.

Press Here by Herve Tullet

Brilliant, fun book. One every young child should have access to. Throughout the book children have to touch certain parts of the illustration or turn the book one way or the other. The reader's actions cause the illustrations to change on each page. This book reminds me of Christie Mathieson's Tap the Magic Tree.

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins
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Full disclosure, The Doorbell Rang, isn't an MSRI title. But since I was reading a bunch of math books, I figured I might as well read one of my all time favorite books. This book is great for division, fractions and fun! Just make sure you aren't hungry before you read it, or that you have a plate of cookies and a glass of milk at your side when you do.

Over in a River, Flowing out to the Sea by Marianne Berkes illustrated by Jill Dubin

Love the collage illustrations, they’re absolutely gorgeous. I also love that in addition to featuring ten different animals the book features ten different rivers. There’s back matter about the rivers and the animals which is fun for older readers. It turns out the book has a fun seek and find element which the reader discovers when she reaches the end of the book. Each page also has a map that shows the location of each river. Glad to know about this one. Oh, and I forgot the best part. The book features my favorite insect-dragonflies!

​One Very Big Bear by Alice Briere-Haquet and illustrated by Olivier Philipponneau and Raphaele Enjary

Fans of Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back trilogy will eat this counting book up. The simple graphic art highlights the shocking end.

Sheep Won’t Sleep: Counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s by Judy Cox and illustrated by Nina Cuneo

Most people can relate to not being able to sleep so right away there’s an immediate connection for the reader.

I love the whimsically colored animals and the various geometric patterns of their coats. Classrooms could easily incorporate this book into their 100th day celebrations and craft 100 patterned animals from construction paper. 

I Know Numbers by Taro Gomi

Okay, full disclosure, I love Taro Gomi. When I taught bilingual first grade in Spanish in Chelsea, MA, I was always looking for Spanish books. I had a copy of Everyone Poops (Todos hacemos caca) and it was like contraband. The kids couldn’t wait for their turn to read it during reader’s workshop. My fourth graders feel the same about Sarah Albee’s nonfiction book Poop Happened.

Anyway, this book doesn’t have anything to do with poop, it’s all about numbers and the various ways we use numbers to help make sense of the world around us. Definitely worth checking out!

The Lion’s Share by Matthew McElligot

This is not a new book or a Mathical prize or honor book, it’s just one of my favorites. It’s a perfect book for teaching halving, doubling and fractions. Plus, the ant is such a refreshing heroine. She’s confident, generous and doesn’t get wrapped up in the competition around her. Oh, and the best part, when I read this book with my boys when they were little, they insisted on baking the same cake Ant presented to Lion. We had so much fun!

Goodnight Numbers by Danica McKelkar
Illustrated by Alicia Padron

Parents of young children are frequently in need of a short bedtime book.

For me the highlight of the book was the ten-frame disguised as a picture hanging in each room.

Baby Goes to Market by Atinuke illustrated by Angela Brooksbank

I didn’t even realize till the end of the book that the numbers decreased as the baby travels on Mama’s back through the market-nicely done!

What I loved about this book is it reminded me of a trip I took to the apple orchard when Anders, my oldest son, was ten-months-old. He was in a backpack and I gave him an apple to hold. I didn’t think there was anyway he’d eat it with the few teeth he had. Sure enough when I took off the backpack, most of the apple was gone. I was horrified because he could have choked and I wouldn't have known because he was on my back. So I love how in this book the baby has his own feast and, “Mama does not notice,” because that's exactly what happened to me!

8 An Animal Alphabet by Elisha Cooper

Very fun and clever seek-and-find book which reinforces the concept of counting to eight as well as introducing readers to various animal names that begin with each letter in the alphabet. I have to disagree with Elisha Cooper though that ten should move over for eight!

Crash! Boom! A Math Tale by Robie Harris illustrated by Chris Chatterton

Love the growth mindset the character in this book embraces as she works to build a sturdy tower that’s as tall as herself.

I’m also intrigued by Chris Chatterton’s illustrations. It looks like the blocks are depicted by photos instead of illustrations.

One Big Pair of Underwear by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld

Who wouldn’t love a book titled One Big Pair of Underwear?
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Laura Gehl’s writing rocks! It’s alliterative, it rhymes and the book’s ladder structure and sense of humor makes the book a ton of fun. Oh, and did I mention that if you’re looking for a book to introduce the concept of subtraction to your child or your students that this is the book for you? Well, it is. Some kids might be so entranced by the whimsical characters that they might not even realize they’re subtracting! I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more books by Laura Gehl.

How Many Jelly Beans: A Giant Book of Giant Numbers!
By Andrea Menotti and illustrated by Yancey Labat
 
Every year our math curriculum starts off with a place value unit, and every year I struggle with how to make the unit interesting. How Many Jelly Beans? is the answer to my quandary. In addition to being colorful and fun, it introduces several numbers including 10, 20, 100, 500, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 and 1,000,000. These numbers help illustrate the concept that if you place one zero at the end of the number, the number is ten times greater than it was before.

The book also displays all the calendar months and has an impressive five-page gatefold spread.

Absolutely One Thing: Featuring Charlie and Lola By Lauren Child

A cute book with lots of small and large numbers with multiple math concepts such as addition, subtraction and multiplication.

What I enjoyed most about this book is the character growth. Charlie learns a trick to keep Lola from taking his items-it's a trick most siblings could benefit from!

Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain By Cheryl Bardoe and illustrated by Jessica McClintock

My fourth grade students and I loved this book. In fact, four of them thought Nothing Stopped Sophie should win the Sibert Medal. You can read why they thought this book should win here.  It didn't. But it did win the 2019 Mathical Prize for its riveting retelling of the incredible true story of how Sophie Germain persevered and overcame gender discrimination in 18th century France and became a famous mathematician.